‘Apes’ premieres in Hollywood

Fox rolls out the red carpet at Grauman's

The Thursday night premiere of 20th Century Fox’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” at Grauman’s Chinese Theater wasn’t so much about monkey business as it was Blighty banter.

“Anywhere the Brits are, that’s where quality is,” bragged thesp David Oyelowo, one of several Brits who turned out for the screening and afterparty at the Roosevelt — including director Rupert Wyatt and cast members Andy Serkis and Tom Felton.

“It’s like playing Hamlet or Macbeth — you can’t let the fact that Olivier played it hang over you,” Oyelowo said.

Still, he admitted that even a Brit’s bite can’t compete with a byte; on set, there wasn’t much room — literally — for friendly battles of wit. “There was so much technology that in-between scenes you were just trying to get out of the way,” he said.

Star James Franco said, “Ten years ago, my initial instinct with CGI was ‘run, that’s fake acting.’ But now I think that this movie could only have been made this way — the effects are required, and I fully embrace that.”

Felton, whose “Harry Potter” frenemy Rupert Grint was among the guests, said he got thrown around on set by Serkis. “Andy is this real gentleman of a guy, then on set he turns into a sort of psycho ape,” Felton said. “I was bruised and battered.”